Quinnipiac Bobcats men's ice hockey


The Quinnipiac Bobcats men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college ice hockey program that represents Quinnipiac University. The Bobcats are a member of ECAC Hockey. They play at the People's United Center in Hamden, Connecticut.

History

Quinnipiac College began sponsoring men's ice hockey as a varsity sport for the 1975–76 season. The program began as an independent team before joining ECAC 3 the following year. The program remained with the third-tier conference for over 20 years despite being a Division II school for much of that time. The Braves left ECAC 3 in 1997 and spent a year as a D-II independent before moving up to Division I as part of the university's transition to the top level. Quinnipiac was a founding member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference ice hockey division, joining the conference as an affiliate member. The Braves won the MAAC Regular Season Championship in their first season in the league. The trend continued as Quinnipiac won the title the follow two seasons. In 2002 The Braves won the team's first playoff series, winning the MAAC Playoff Championship with a 6–4 win over Mercyhurst. With the win, Quinnipiac received an automatic bid to the 2002 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, the first NCAA postseason appearance in program history. Quinnipiac faced off against Cornell in the first round of the East Regional, held in Worcester, Massachusetts. Quinnipiac's run into the NCAA Tournament ended early in a 1–6 loss to the Big Red. The game was the first NCAA Tournament appearance for the Braves. Quinnipiac finished the 2001–02 season 20–13–5, marking the team's fourth consecutive season with at least 20 wins.
men's ice hockey team battles Dartmouth College at the then-named TD Banknorth Sports Center, February 2007. Quinnipiac student section is on right.
In 2003 the MAAC Hockey league split off from the main athletic conference to form Atlantic Hockey. After two years in Atlantic Hockey Quinnipiac left to join the ECAC, replacing Vermont who left the league for Hockey East and changed their name to the Bobcats. QU was chosen over a number of applicants in large part to the university's commitment to build a new multipurpose sports arena to replace the civic-owned Northford Ice Pavilion. The Bobcats moved into the new 3,386-seat TD Bank Sports Center in 2007.
The 2012-13 season has brought Quinnipiac to national prominence. The program reached a new high becoming the number one team in the country on February 11, 2013 in both the USCHO.com poll and USA Today College Hockey poll. Quinnipiac retained the ranking the following week despite losing their first game as the top ranked team to St. Lawrence University as the 2nd and 3rd ranked teams also fell the same weekend. The Bobcats also won their first ever Cleary Cup presented to the ECAC regular season champion. On March 24, 2013, the Bobcats received the number one overall seed in the 2013 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. The Bobcats won the East Region with wins over Canisius and Union to advance to the school's first ever Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, Pa. In the national semifinals, Quinnipiac defeated St. Cloud State to advance to the national championship game against archrival Yale. The Bobcats fell 4-0 to Yale to end the 2012-13 as the national runner-up.
In the 2013-14 season the Bobcats once again reached the NCAA tournament yet were defeated in the first round by Providence College 4-0. The team finished the season with a 24-10-6 record.
Quinnipiac once again had a successful 2014-15 season when they won their second ECAC regular season title in 3 years but lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to North Dakota 4-1. The team finished the season with a 23-12-4 record.
The 2015-16 season saw Qunnipiac set a school record for wins with 32 along with winning their 3rd ECAC regular season title in 4 years and winning the ECAC tournament championship for the first time. Quinnipiac blew through the East Regional with wins over RIT 4-0 and UMass Lowell 4-1 to capture the regional championship and advance to the Frozen Four in the Tampa for the 2nd time in 4 seasons. In the national semifinals the Bobcats withheld a late charge by Boston College to win 3-2 and advance to the second national championship game in program history. Once again Quinnipiac was denied a national championship this time at the hands of North Dakota in a 5-1 defeat. The team finished the season with a record of 32-4-7.

Rivals

Since moving to the ECAC, Quinnipiac's biggest rival has been the Yale Bulldogs. The rivalry is dubbed the War on Whitney Avenue as the two campuses are separated by a mere 8 miles on Whitney Avenue in Hamden, Connecticut to New Haven, Connecticut. The rivalry has reached its highest point in 2013 as both the Bobcats and the Bulldogs rank in the top 10 nationally and are 1 and 2 in the ECAC standings. Quinnipiac holds a 9-5-2 all-time record against the Bulldogs. The winner of the final game between the two teams receives the Heroes Hat which honors those who risked their lives during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The two teams met on April 13, 2013 for the fourth time in the 2012-13 season in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to play for the national championship. Quinnipiac won the previous three meetings by a combined score of 13-3, but was upset in the national championship game, 4-0.
The Cornell Big Red have also become a rival of Quinnipiac with the teams meeting in five ECAC Hockey Playoff series since the 2007 season having won in 2007 at Lynah Rink and in 2013 and 2016 in Hamden with the latter two coming with Quinnipiac as the ECAC number one seed and seasons in which Quinnipiac reached the Frozen Four. Cornell won series in 2011 and 2018 both at Lynah Rink. Quinnipiac is 3-2 in those series against Cornell with three of the series going the maximum three games. Things on the ice have been heated at times with a lot of physical play and both Rand Pecknold and Cornell head coach Mike Schafer jawing at each other as well.

Records vs. Current ECAC Hockey Teams

As of the completion of 2018–19 season

Season-by-season results

All-time coaching records

As of completion of 2018–19 season

Statistical Leaders

Career points leaders

PlayerYearsGPGAPtsPIM
1997–200112699106205230
1985–198910990112202128
1976–198083109192
1978–19829294186
1999–200313656113169254
2005–200915753116169124
1983–19876197158
2003–200715123125148246
2006–2010147687514392
2011–20151574210114391

Career Goaltending Leaders

GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average
Minimum 30 games
PlayerYearsGPMinWLTGASOSV%GAA
2012–2016124726178251623719.9171.96
2009–2013106613958271720110.9241.96
2016–20197842354226413910.9231.97
2001–200510759745934102487.9212.49
1997–20018545681903.9012.50

Statistics current through the start of the 2019-20 season.

Roster

As of July 17, 2019.

Awards and honors

NCAA

Individual Awards

Spencer Penrose Award
Tim Taylor Award
NCAA Scoring Champion
AHCA First Team All-Americans
AHCA Second Team All-Americans

Individual Awards

Offensive Player of the Year
Defensive Player of the Year
Defensive Rookie of the Year
Tournament Most Valuable Player
First Team All-MAAC
Second Team All-MAAC
MAAC All-Rookie Team

Individual Awards

Player of the Year
Regular Season Goaltending Award
Regular Season Scoring Trophy
Coach of the Year
First Team All-Atlantic Hockey
Second Team All-Atlantic Hockey
Atlantic Hockey All-Rookie Team

Individual Awards

Player of the Year
Rookie of the Year
Ken Dryden Award
Student-Athlete of the Year
Best Defensive Defenseman
Tim Taylor Award
Most Outstanding Player in Tournament
First Team All-ECAC Hockey
Second Team All-ECAC Hockey
Third Team All-ECAC Hockey
ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team
The following is a list of people associated with the Quinnipiac men's ice hockey program who were elected into the Quinnipiac Bobcats Hall of Fame.
PlayerPositionTeamYearsStanley Cup|
Connor CliftonDefensemanBOS2018–Present0
Connor JonesForwardNYI2016–20170
Matthew PecaCenterTBL, MTL2016–Present0
Brogan RaffertyDefensemanVAN2018–Present0
Devon ToewsDefensemanNYI2018–Present0
Bryce Van BrabantLeft WingCGY2013–20140